Mark Steyn's Sunday column on L'Affaire Plame is one of the better commentaries on this ludicrous distraction contrasted with reality.

...

As I wrote in this space a year ago, an ambassador, in Sir Henry Wootton's famous dictum, is a good man sent abroad to lie for his country; this ambassador came home to lie to his. What we have here is, in effect, the old standby plot of lame Hollywood conspiracy thrillers: rogue elements within the CIA attempting to destabilize the elected government. If the left's view of the world is now so insanely upside-down that that's the side they want to be on, good for them. But ''leaking'' the name of Wilson's wife and promoter within the CIA didn't ''endanger her life'' or ''compromise her mission.'' Au contraire, exposing the nature of this fraudulent, compromised mission might conceivably prevent the American people having their lives endangered.

Here's the thing: They're still pulling body parts from London's Tube tunnels. Too far away for you? No local angle? OK, how about this? Magdy el-Nashar. He's a 33-year old Egyptian arrested Friday morning in Cairo, and thought to be what they call a ''little emir'' -- i.e., the head honcho in the local terrorist cell, the one who fires up the suicide bombers. Until his timely disappearance, he was a biochemist studying at Leeds University and it's in his apartment the London bombs were made. Previously he was at North Carolina State University.

So this time round he blew up London rather than Washington. Next time, who knows? Who cares? Here's another fellow you don't read much about in America: Kamel Bourgass. He had a plan to unleash ricin in London. Fortunately, the cops got wind of that one and three months ago he was convicted and jailed. Just suppose, instead of the British police raiding Bourgass' apartment but missing el-Nashar's, it had been the other way around, and ricin had been released in aerosol form on the Tube.

Kamel Bourgass and Magdy el-Nashar are real people, not phantoms conjured by those lyin' sonsofbitches Bush and Cheney. And to those who say, "but that's why Iraq is a distraction from the war on terror," sorry, it doesn't work like that. It's not either/or; it's a string of connections: unlimited Saudi money, Westernized Islamist fanatics, supportive terrorist states, proliferating nuclear technology. One day it all comes together and there goes the neighborhood. Here's another story you may have missed this week:

''Iran will resume uranium enrichment if the European Union does not recognize its right to do so, two Iranian nuclear negotiators said in an interview published Tuesday.''

Got that? If you don't let us go nuclear, we'll go nuclear. Negotiate that, John Kerry. As with Bourgass and el-Nashar, Hossein Moussavian and Cyrus Nasseri are real Iranian negotiators, not merely the deranged war fantasies of Bush and Cheney.

The British suicide bombers and the Iranian nuke demands are genuine crises. The Valerie Plame game is a pseudo-crisis. If you want to talk about Niger or CIA reform, fine. But if you seriously think the only important aspect of a politically motivated narcissist kook's drive-thru intelligence mission to a critical part of the world is the precise sequence of events by which some White House guy came to mention the kook's wife to some reporter, then you've departed the real world and you're frolicking on the wilder shores of Planet Zongo.

What's this really about? It's not difficult. A big chunk of the American elites have decided there is no war; it's all a racket got up by Bush and Cheney. And, even if there is a war somewhere or other, wherever it is, it's not where Bush says it is. Iraq is a ''distraction'' from Afghanistan -- and, if there were no Iraq, Afghanistan would be a distraction from Niger, and Niger's a distraction from Valerie Plame's next photo shoot for Vanity Fair.

The police have found the suicide bomber's head in the rubble of the London bus, and Iran is enriching uranium. The only distraction here is the pitiful parochialism of our political culture.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn17.html

Bunch of bogus crap. The Bush Administration leaked a classified piece of information that put CIA agents at risk, and partisan spin doctors are trying to make it go away. They probably did it to try to smear a political opponent in order to discredit a truthful report about their bogus "intel" they were using to push the attack on the Iraqis. There's nothing good about what they did, and they're nothing good about trying to be an enabler for them.

Bunch of bogus crap. The Bush Administration leaked a classified piece of information that put CIA agents at risk, and partisan spin doctors are trying to make it go away. They probably did it to try to smear a political opponent in order to discredit a truthful report about their bogus "intel" they were using to push the attack on the Iraqis. There's nothing good about what they did, and they're nothing good about trying to be an enabler for them.

They didn't put anyone at risk. She wasn't even covert for 6 years prior. She was just an analyst, paid to sit on her silly ass and do lord knows what. Wilson is the idiot that totally blew any cover she had.

What's this really about? It's not difficult. A big chunk of the American elites have decided there is no war; it's all a racket got up by Bush and Cheney. And, even if there is a war somewhere or other, wherever it is, it's not where Bush says it is. Iraq is a ''distraction'' from Afghanistan -- and, if there were no Iraq, Afghanistan would be a distraction from Niger, and Niger's a distraction from Valerie Plame's next photo shoot for Vanity Fair.


A big chunk of politically correct media like John Stewart and his many epigones on the internet also believe what the American elites have decided for them, despite the irony that they vigorously claim they hate American elites.

A big chunk of politically correct media like John Stewart and his many epigones on the internet also believe what the American elites have decided for them, despite the irony that they vigorously claim they hate American elites.

So Twoo!

If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.

classified is classified

They didn't put anyone at risk. She wasn't even covert for 6 years prior. She was just an analyst, paid to sit on her silly ass and do lord knows what. Wilson is the idiot that totally blew any cover she had.

So maybe we should replace the CIA with you, since you clearly know better than they do. Even if it didn't put anyone at risk, it's still a crime. Rove and Libby aren't the ones to decide which agents are outed and which aren't. And, even if she wasn't in the field, the CIA kept her identity classified for a reason. Sure, you're more qualified than they are to decide who should and who shouldn't be secret, but have you considered that any front agencies she's worked for, and any other operatives she's worked with are now outed?

Maybe, just maybe, there's a reason that some CIA agents are kept secret, and maybe, just maybe, the CIA has more information about it than you do, and . . . just possibly . . . even if they're wrong, and you're right . . . it's still not Scooter and Rove's job to override their decissions. They don't have that right or that power.

What's this really about? It's not difficult. A big chunk of the American elites have decided there is no crime in leaking classified information to the press to smear a political enemy; it's all a racket got up by the Democrats. And, even if there is a law governing it somewhere or other, wherever it is, it's not what the media reports. Rove/Plame is a ''distraction'' from leftist lies -- and, if there were no Plame, the Swift Vets would be a distraction from Kerry.

But the talking heads and right-wing elites on Fox and the other propaganda sources will keep telling these people what to think, and they'll keep right on falling for it, making excuse after excuse for every screw up that comes from their monied, elitist corporate politicians.

classified is classified

How brilliant!

Now prove that anything classified was actually leaked and by whom.

Here's a wee clue: the crumbs lead to Joe Wilson.

Rove told Cooper that the info he was giving him "will be declassified soon".

In other words, it was still classified when he told the Cooper.

Here, spin on this for awhile:

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-07-17T173247Z_01_MOL756117_RTRUKOC_0_BUSH-LEAK.xml

Time correspondent Matthew Cooper said he told a grand jury last week that Rove told him the woman worked at the "agency," or CIA, on weapons of mass destruction issues, and ended the call by saying "I've already said too much."

He said Rove did not disclose the woman's name, Valerie Plame, but told him in a July 2003 conversation that information would be declassified that would cast doubt on the credibility of her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson.

"So did Rove leak Plame's name to me, or tell me she was covert? No. Was it through my conversation with Rove that I learned for the first time that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA and may have been responsible for sending him? Yes. Did Rove say that she worked at the 'agency' on 'WMD'? Yes," Cooper wrote in Time's current edition.

How brilliant!

Now prove that anything classified was actually leaked and by whom.

Here's a wee clue: the crumbs lead to Joe Wilson.

No need to be an obnoxious little con.

Retort:
Your response is mildly hypocritical coming from the ideology that proports laws as being black and white in nature. In case you missed it, classified is classified and illegal is illegal.
As for the clues: show me actual evidence rather than rumor mongering.

No need to be an obnoxious little con.

Retort:
Your response is mildly hypocritical coming from the ideology that proports laws as being black and white in nature. In case you missed it, classified is classified and illegal is illegal.
As for the clues: show me actual evidence rather than rumor mongering.


And Due Process is Due Process and Innocent Until Proven Guilty is Innocent Until Proven Guilty.

And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty


classified is classified

And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty And i never said who was or wasn't guilty

You are prejudging whether or not anything of a truly classified nature was breached.

how is "classified is classified " prejudging?
If it is classified it is classified. If it wasn't it wasn't.
My god. This is like arguing with my 2 year old.

We're not in a court of law for chrissake. All of us are free to speculate anything we want.

Certainly no right-winger has ever called Ted Kennedy "a murderer", right (which is an opinion I concur with incidentally)? Since he was acquitted by "due process".

how is "classified is classified " prejudging?
If it is classified it is classified. If it wasn't it wasn't.
My god. This is like arguing with my 2 year old.


:rolleyes:

How incredibly witty.

You are jumping to the conclusion that Plame's identity was classified. Her former supervisor has stated publicly that Plame's and Wilson's indiscreet behavior in the 90s compromised her cover. She has been a desk jockey for 7 years. Knowing her identity now is like knowing Betty Curry was Bubba's secretary.

Translation: When its politically expedient we can simply by-pass any laws we find inconvenient.

Nobody should be surprised at this mentality from an administration of the worst political bullies since Nixon. Bottom line: its okay because they said its okay, the law be damned.

I'm not responding to anyone in particular.

The way I see it, Wilson should be the one with all fingers pointed at him.

Wilson's op-ed piece in the Times was what started this whole ball rolling. He specifically stated HE was SENT AS CIA AGENT, assumably undercover, to Niger to investigate possible uranium sales. He was a liar, of course; his wife was the one sent.

Well, I find it rather funny that the liberal peanut gallery is jumping up down exclaining " OMG! He(Rove) didn't tell her name?!?! Pffft, like it matters! It's ridiculously easy to find out to whom Wilson is married!"

Yes, morons, it is easy. So easy that HER COVER WAS NOW TOTALLY BLOWN BY WILSON.

It's also been repeatedly stated that "who cares if Rove wasn't the first to leak the source, it was still wrong/illegal to do so!" Er... do we forget so fast about Wilson and Plame's media spotlights they have repeatedly drawn upon themselves after the Novak piece? And what did Wilson say when someone with half a brained question this bizarre behavior? "My wife was no longer clandestine the day Novak ran his piece." You should easily be able to see the illogic here in this little witch hunt, or is the liberal hoodwink crew ever going to set their sights on Wilson and Plame? Don't hold your breath in hypocrite land.

Too bad you got the story completely wrong there, ern. Just stop right now before you make yourself look as silly as you did when you railed on for three pages about how the old dude sentenced in the Mississippi civil-rights murders was going to walk away free despite his conviction, only to find out that he was actually sentenced to twenty years in prison.

I'm not responding to anyone in particular.

The way I see it, Wilson should be the one with all fingers pointed at him.

Wilson's op-ed piece in the Times was what started this whole ball rolling. He specifically stated HE was SENT AS CIA AGENT, assumably undercover, to Niger to investigate possible uranium sales. He was a liar, of course; his wife was the one sent.

Well, I find it rather funny that the liberal peanut gallery is jumping up down exclaining " OMG! he didn't tell her name?!?! Pffft, like it matters! It's ridiculously easy to find out to whom Wilson is married!"

Yes, morons, it is easy. So easy that HER COVER WAS NOW TOTALLY BLOWN BY WILSON.

It's also been repeatedly"stated that "who cares if Rove wasn't the first to leak the source, it was still wrong/illegal to do so!" Er... do we forget so fast about Wilson and Plame's media spotlights they have repeatedly"drawn upon themselves after the Novak piece? And what did Wilson say when someone with half a brained question this bizarre behavior? "My wife was no longer clandestine the day Novak ran his piece." You should easily be able to see the illogic here in this little witch hunt, or is the liberal hoodwink crew ever going to set their sites on Wilson and Plame? Don't hold your breath in hypocrite land.


^ Correct.

This is why Wilson is now saying that Bush should fire Rove even if he didn't do anything illegal.

:rolleyes:

How incredibly witty.

You are jumping to the conclusion that Plame's identity was classified. Her former supervisor has stated publicly that Plame's and Wilson's indiscreet behavior in the 90s compromised her cover. She has been a desk jockey for 7 years. Knowing her identity now is like knowing Betty Curry was Bubba's secretary.


Stop putting words in my mouth. Especially since I have not actually stated my opinion. What I have stated was in relation to if it was classified. However, I will not be crying if Mr. Rove is politically hung out to dry on this. First, he needs to be proven guilty.

Too bad you got the story completely wrong there, ern. Just stop right now before you make yourself look as silly as you did when you railed on for three pages about how the old dude sentenced in the Mississippi civil-rights murders was going to walk away free despite his conviction, only to find out that he was actually sentenced to twenty years in prison.


Yes, well, I was entirely unaware that Mississippi was one of the rare states that does not have a SoL on manslaughter. I was suspecting an "oh my god, but we thought he would do prison time for the manslaughter charges we found him guiltily of! "by the juries, and the whole thing being cleverly written off as a judicial snafu due to the SoL.

I'm not responding to anyone in particular.

The way I see it, Wilson should be the one with all fingers pointed at him.

Wilson's op-ed piece in the Times was what started this whole ball rolling. He specifically stated HE was SENT AS CIA AGENT, assumably undercover, to Niger to investigate possible uranium sales. He was a liar, of course; his wife was the one sent.

Well, I find it rather funny that the liberal peanut gallery is jumping up down exclaining " OMG! He(Rove) didn't tell her name?!?! Pffft, like it matters! It's ridiculously easy to find out to whom Wilson is married!"

Yes, morons, it is easy. So easy that HER COVER WAS NOW TOTALLY BLOWN BY WILSON.

It's also been repeatedly stated that "who cares if Rove wasn't the first to leak the source, it was still wrong/illegal to do so!" Er... do we forget so fast about Wilson and Plame's media spotlights they have repeatedly drawn upon themselves after the Novak piece? And what did Wilson say when someone with half a brained question this bizarre behavior? "My wife was no longer clandestine the day Novak ran his piece." You should easily be able to see the illogic here in this little witch hunt, or is the liberal hoodwink crew ever going to set their sights on Wilson and Plame? Don't hold your breath in hypocrite land.


You haven't the slightest clue what you are talking about..

You haven't the slightest clue what you are talking about..

More like YOU haven't the slightest clue what I'm talking about, which is hardly unexpected.

You appear to be talking about a story from alternate dimension. Are you claiming that Joe Wilson did not go to nigeria? Or are you claiming that his wife was 'assigned' the job but sent her husband instead? Or are you claiming that he just tagged along while she investigated the claims and then pretended that he had been sent?

It doesn't really matter which version you're imlpying, because they're all equally wrong.

You appear to be talking about a story from alternate dimension. Are you claiming that Joe Wilson did not go to nigeria?


Uhh, Nigeria, and who is tuning in from an alternate dimension, again? I have no idea if he went to "Nigeria."



The facts are that Wilson outted his wife before anyone else. He's an idiot, a colossal one, but apparently a useful idiot for the democraps.

More like YOU haven't the slightest clue what I'm talking about, which is hardly unexpected.


No, I know exactly what you are prattling on about, you're repeating the lies emanating from the GOP to smear Wilson and take the heat off of those who actually did something wrong in partisan fashion.

The facts are that Wilson outted his wife before anyone else. He's an idiot, a colossal one, but apparently a useful idiot for the democraps.

You are quoting Nigeria as if you fail to see the relevance. I understand that it can be hard to deny reality without excising key occurrences which force you to confront it, but this is really too much. Oh and thanks so much for pointing out that I failed to capitalize Nigeria (a country which you no doubt feel deserves its proper respect). I would say something about grammar gripes being the last refuge of a weak argument, but that would be a litle trite.





The facts are that Wilson outted his wife before anyone else. He's an idiot, a colossal one, but apparently a useful idiot for the democraps.

Right. And how exactly did he out his wife again? You haven't made that clear through your fifth-hand transcription of RNC talking points.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html

Doesn't get much more left than the WP. Note Wilson's lies upon lies.


And btw, if Wilson didn't out his wife, how could Rove have? Neither mention her by name, but both of their actions clearly implicate her true nature in Niger, thusly compromising any covert status she had.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html

Doesn't get much more left than the WP. Note Wilson's lies upon lies.


And btw, if Wilson didn't out his wife, how could Rove have? Neither mention her by name, but both of their actions clearly implicate her true nature in Niger, thusly compromising any covert status she had.

Please pay attention:

- The Left want to always have it BOTH WAYS.
- This is why they embrace multi-culturalism and existentialism.
- When they do something it is okay.
- When someone they don't like does the same thing, HE IS EVIL.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39834-2004Jul9.html

Doesn't get much more left than the WP. Note Wilson's lies upon lies.


Susan Schmidt? Hahahaha.

Susan Schmidt? Hahahaha.


????

Did you have a point?